How to be an expert

Legend has it that Arthur Rubenstein was once asked on the street for directions to Carnegie Hall. “Pardon me sir, but how do I get to Carnegie Hall?” He said, “Practice, practice, practice.”

Here’s something you may enjoy listening to. A Scientific American podcast (mp3 download ~9.5 MB) on what it takes to become an expert. Anyone can provided one puts sufficient sweat into it and does so smartly over an extended period of time. So all of you who have small children, pay special attention.

In this episode, Phil Ross talks about what scientists have learned is necessary to achieve expertise in virtually any field. Ross’s article on the subject, The Expert Mind, is in the August issue of Scientific American. And Sheldon Schafer, who sports the title of Curator of the Solar System (a huge model of the solar system centered in Peoria, Illinois) discusses the Interplanetary Bicycle Ride, coming up on August 12 and 13. Plus we’ll test your knowledge about some recent science in the news. Websites mentioned on this podcast include Spectrum.IEEE.org; www.lakeview-museum.org; and the Scientific American Digital Archive, www.sciamdigital.com.